Hitman Blood Money

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The new notoriety system is sweet music to our ears.

By Douglass C. Perry

Hitman Blood Money takes a different tack than the bonus-pack natured Hitman: Contracts. It's expanding in a way that's both inviting and natural. In development with creator Io Interactive, Blood Money tells a good, full story and builds a globally reactive world around the necessary and sometimes evil actions of the infamous bald hitman with the barcode on the back of his neck.

The most interesting aspect of this new game is clearly not its slow and clunky interface, which is exactly like the previous games, and at this point in the series, should really be streamlined and sped up. No, while I grimaced a little as I stumbled through the Las Vegas level, what struck me as especially cool was the game's newly implemented notoriety system. Much like in previous games, Agent 47 is assigned to travel to exotic locals across the world to kill off especially seedy or evil men. Although there is no level quite like the techno-jamming industrial meat-packing ball room from Contracts, we once again traipsed through the gaudy streets of Las Vegas. Other levels of note include Paris and New Orleans.

In general, you'll find the fourth game in the original PC series is much more fleshed out, more thought out, deeper, and broader than before. You'll notice the effects of the notoriety system behind the scenes. In Las Vegas, you'll find yourself talking a little more. You'll actually hear the voice of Agent 47 more and you'll interact with more things to boot. You check in at a hotel, talk to the front desk woman, and discuss things regularly with almost any bartender at any bar in any level.

The newly built graphics engine makes Agent 47 look even more sinister.

Information is also passed along in slightly different ways, using newspapers to report your actions. For instance, after each level, the notoriety system functions by reporting in the news that 10 people were killed in an unexplained killing spree in a Las Vegas hotel. In reality, you might have smoked 10 people, and your agency had to come in, clean up the mess you left, and provide a cover story for you. One such example: "Innocent Gambler Died: Reasons Unknown."

You'll actually see the newspaper format at the end of each level, each "article" being readable and providing good information on the last mission and an upcoming one, too. You can read the entire front page, which contains stories on both your transgressions and articles on the people you're after. Thus, the newspaper serves as a kind of secret de-briefer before you get the real mission objectives form the agency. They're not necessary to read, but they fill in fun and interesting little details. Since the IO guys are so underhanded, dark, and clever, you know the stories will be a kick.